


All I Fear Means Nothing

by Serie11



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Angst, Awesome Kairi (Kingdom Hearts), Canon Compliant, Disney Worlds (Kingdom Hearts), F/F, F/M, Flowers, Gen, Heart-to-Heart, KH3 March On, Missing Scene, Moving On, Oneshot collection, Post-Canon, Prompt Fic, Recovery, Vignette, angsty darkness boy, dive to the heart
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-07-27
Packaged: 2019-11-07 21:16:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 5,786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17968199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serie11/pseuds/Serie11
Summary: A series of one shots that are canon compliant for KH3. Chapter titles contain prompt and pairing. Tags will be updated as fics are uploaded.





	1. Twilight Town + Naminé/Xion

Xion steps out onto the tram common carefully. It’s so much livelier than she remembers; but that had been while going on missions to Twilight Town, and Saïx had always made sure to schedule those when most of the town was sleeping. Being here in the middle of the ‘day’ was strange, to say the least.

“It’s very noisy,” Naminé says quietly. Xion looks at her. Naminé tugs at her blue overshirt nervously, and Xion takes her hand and smiles. Naminé smiles back.

“Did you never come out here?” Xion asks as they step forwards, still holding hands so they can navigate around the crowds.

“No,” Naminé says. “Only in the data-town that DiZ made. And that was populated with as few people as possible to try and prevent any… glitches.”

Xion makes a humming sound. She’s sure that there’s been growth in the time she’s been away, and that might be due to the new restaurant that Riku had told her about. Where there had been only a small plaza before, she could see tables and hurried staff waiting on tables, the area packed full of hungry customers.

“There’s a place playing movies, if you’d like to see?” Xion offers. Naminé nods, looking interested, and Xion turns in that direction. She tries to smile at the people they pass, even though she doesn’t know any of them. Most of them smile back, and it makes her feel less on edge. These people are just here, living their lives. They don’t intend any harm upon either of them. She can unclench her fist to stop herself from summoning her Keyblade.

They pass the restaurant, and Xion can’t help but lift her head slightly, sniffing the air. She doesn’t have the broadest experience, but it does smell very good. She can understand why the tables are all full.

“Oh! Look at that.”

Xion looks to where Naminé has pointed. It’s a large flower pot with dozens of blooms in full flower, bright and eye catching.

“They’re lovely,” Xion says. Just like…

They walk past the plant and Xion swoops down to steal one of the flowers from it. Naminé makes a small sound when she turns to fix it in her hair, and Xion smiles at her even as Naminé blushes. It’s cute and pink and looks adorable where she’s fixed it behind her ear.

“Thank you,” Naminé says, pink still dusting over her cheeks. It matches the flower.

“It’s cute, like you,” Xion replies. Naminé ducks her head and leans against Xion’s side. Xion hadn’t even realised she was cold until her warmth is pressed up against her.

They find the movies in the area that Xion remembers for spawning particularly difficult Heartless. There’s no sign of any enemies now as they find some seats and settle down. Naminé rests her head against Xion’s shoulder and Xion finds that her attention is more on her than the movie, even though the movie is very different from anything she had really seen before.

She supposes it’s because she’s used to strange and unknowable things happening, things that she had no idea existed. The unknown is usual, and Xion is far more interested in the girl that she’s sitting beside.

When Xion’s stomach growls though, Naminé lets out a quiet chuckle. “Ready to get some food?” she asks, and Xion nods happily.

“Sounds like a good idea,” she agrees, and Naminé stands up.

“We could go to the Bistro,” Naminé suggests. “It looked good.”

“Yeah, it did look pretty good.”

Naminé nods determinedly, and Xion follows her lead as she weaves through the crowd. Hopefully at the Bistro they could order something that neither of them had eaten before, and she could see Naminé’s eyebrows lift at whatever strange meal they bring out. Their dates are always quiet, but Xion has no qualm with that. She’s had more than enough excitement, and she’s learned to cherish the calm.

If the calm includes Naminé’s face scrunching up when she tries the new food, that’s definitely an added bonus.


	2. Olympus + Aqua & Ven

Ven looks up at the tall building that they’ve landed in front of. It’s cracked in one corner, and every few seconds he thinks he can see dust trickling down from the missing part of the roof.

Around them, the courtyard isn’t much better. In some places the ground is torn up and the streets have been smashed, the stones ripped up or just missing. Some buildings have collapsed while others right next to it are still standing. After he and Aqua had heard about the damage, they’d come to see if there was anything that they could do. Terra is still recovering in Yen Sid’s tower, but Ven had been filled with a restless energy that he thinks is mirrored in Aqua. Both of them want to do something.

“I think we should find the person in charge of the repair efforts,” Aqua says from beside him. She is scrutinising the area more intensely than he had, eyes tracing the direction of the damage to guess at where the source had been. “Then we can offer our help.”

“Okay,” Ven says. Aqua starts walking, and he falls in beside her. “But what can we do, again?”

Aqua looks at him out of the corner of her eye. “We can use gravity to lift large stones, or destroy anything that’s getting in the way without placing people who don’t have our manoeuvrability in danger. If something moved and almost falls on me I can teleport out of the way. Someone who isn’t a Keyblade wielder can’t do that.”

“Ah,” Ven says. “We’re here to help! Got it.”

Aqua makes something that might have been an amused sound if it wasn’t caught in the back of her throat and snuffed out before it could fully form. Ven looks at her, noting the shadows under her eyes and the tightness around her mouth. As much as Aqua says that she wants to be out here, helping people get back on their feet and maybe meeting up with old friends that they haven’t seen in years, he thinks that maybe they should both be back at the tower. He feels slightly skittish about being away from Terra, and he’s certain Aqua is feeling at least that much.

She catches him staring. “Come on, Ven. We’ve got the ability to help and we’re here – there’s no reason to dawdle.”

Ven drags his feet anyway. “I know that.”

“Then why aren’t you running forward? Whenever we had somewhere to be before, there wasn’t anything that could stop you from getting there as fast as you could.”

Ven blinks. It’s true, but… “I dunno Aqua. I guess… I don’t feel that jumpy anymore.”

Aqua puts a hand on his shoulder. He keeps looking forward so he doesn’t have to look at her, but he hears her sigh anyway.

“I know. And… I don’t feel much like before, either. But this is a way that we can help, and we might help our friends. I think it’s a good place to start in getting back on track, and gathering ourselves again. We don’t have to be perfect, but I think it’ll help to make an effort. Helping people is what Master Eraqus always said was our purpose as Keyblade wielders. It should do us some good to get back to that purpose.”

Ven bites his cheek and scratches his head. “Yeah, that makes sense.” He takes a deep breath and then looks forward again, but this time with more determination. “Okay! Well, I think that we should head towards that big building over there – it looks like there’s a lot of people there, and if we can’t find anyone in charge then we should be able to ask who is.”

Aqua graces him with a smile. It’s not as big or as cheerful as he remembers, and it disappears off her face quickly, but he still appreciates that he’s able to still do that much, at least.

“Sounds like a plan,” Aqua nods. Together, they move forward, leaving the dark memories they’re trying to escape from behind them.


	3. Monstropolis + Vanitas & Sora

He leaves trails of slime wherever he treads.

Black and filthy, it dirties this place like even the monsters that live here cannot. Vanitas wonders if that makes him more of a monster than they are, or if it only puts him among their number. He has no regard for this space. He does not care if he leaves it sparkling clean or dripping darkness.

He drops his emotions whenever he feels them and they spread the trail further, climbing over equipment and down hallways, splitting and spawning. He does not care. He leaves them behind and empties himself out as he does so, scooping out his insides like they’re a bad smell he wants to leave behind. He has a job here and he intends to do it. Nothing else matters, really.

That was before _he_ came.

Vanitas hates Sora in a way that he keeps hidden behind his breastbone, in the space where he would have a heart if Xehanort hadn’t chewed him up and refused to spit him out. The one thing he had that was his own and no one else’s, and it turns out that it isn’t really his at all, not really. Oh, his hair is a different colour, and his eyes are gold ( _not his choice not his decision, forced onto him just like everything else_ ) but the shape of their faces cannot be denied. Sora has shaped him, and Vanitas wants, aches, to shape Sora right back. If there’s one thing that should be fair, it should be this. He should get to leave his mark on Sora, he should get to pull him apart and put him back together. Even now, his emotions are getting the feel of him, are testing him and plotting out his weaknesses. He doesn’t travel alone ( _smart. He wishes he had that option_ ) and Vanitas lurks at the edges of where they can’t see, seething in the darkness and dropping more hate and spite and envy.

( _It’s not fair that Sora gets friends, that Sora has his face and has everything he’s ever wanted. It’s not fair that Sora gets to stand up to Xehanort, that he gets to fight him when Vanitas has always had to bite his violence back behind his teeth and take it out on himself, cutting down his floods of tears and the bulky swaths of his despairs._ )

Vanitas finally lets all that hate he has been storing up leak out and it forms a particularly impressive unversed that he leaves in a place where Sora will have to encounter it. It’s defeated ( _of_ course) and all that hate just flows back into him and he has to clench his teeth around a scream and when he finally, finally confronts him he keeps his helmet on and he spits his words spitefully.

Sora is all light and _Ventus_ and Vanitas cannot stand him, cannot stand what he represents or the different paths he could have taken or his missed opportunities. He is what he is. He cannot ( _will not_ ) change that. He cannot ( _he fears what could be_ ).

The monster seizes him and he cannot bring himself to care as he is thrown away. It does not matter where he goes or what happens to him.

What will happen, will happen. The lights and the darknesses will clash. He will see Sora again.

( _Maybe then Vanitas will show him what he could have been – maybe then Sora will show_ him _what he could have been._ )


	4. Kingdom of Corona + Sora & Ventus

The Kingdom of Corona is bright and happy. Rapunzel’s glee at being released from her tower has been more than catching – Sora had been feeling far more playful than he can remember in recent memory, and Donald and Goofy are happy to be running around as well. It’s all going fine until they run into a man with pink hair who is wearing the Organisation cloak.

He says he knows Sora. That’s impossible – Sora doesn’t remember him, doesn’t know who he is. But there’s something inside him which is tight with knowing, quivering with recognition. Sora blinks and for a second Marluxia’s image is overlaid with someone else’s; someone who looks like Marluxia but who is wearing different clothes, is younger, and is smiling. Sora opens his mouth and a name is almost on the tip of his tongue; he can almost taste whatever the name is that he’s about to say.

Marluxia waves his hand and Sora sinks into sleep.

When he opens his eyes he is standing somewhere almost familiar, blurry in his memory like too many things suddenly are. A circle depicting him, surrounded by cloudy darkness. Sora looks around and sees another person – standing on the other side of the station is a boy with blond hair. His back is turned but Sora walks over to him anyway.

“Roxas?” Sora asks carefully, because the hair is the same but he isn’t wearing a cloak, and he hasn’t attacked him.

Slowly, the boy looks over his shoulder. His face is the same as what Sora remembers of Roxas, but then the boy blinks and something in his eyes tells him that this is a different person altogether. Put off guard, Sora takes a step back. “Who are you?”

The boy blinks again, and sighs. “I can’t remember who he is,” he says mournfully.

“Who you are?” Sora asks, but the boy continues like he didn’t hear him.

“Marluxia, he said his name was? That’s not right… I know that’s not right.” The boy chuckles. “I don’t know much else.”

“You know him?” Sora asks, intrigued.

“Yes. No.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” Sora points out.

“Does anything?” the boy sighs. He puts a hand over his heart. “I can feel my heart aching. But I don’t know why.”

Sora carefully steps forward and puts a hand on his shoulder. “If your heart is aching, that just means that it’s sensing that someone needs help.” A smile crosses his lips. “Someone once told me that if my heart started hurting, that meant that someone out there in the worlds was hurting, and was waiting for me to help them.”

“Help… him…” the boy murmurs. He blinks slowly, and for a moment Sora is sure that he is about to fall asleep. “Thank you, Sora.”

“Huh?” Sora asks. “Wait – how do you know my name? Who are you?”

The boy smiles. “You already know,” he says, and reaches out to gently push Sora a step backwards. Sora steps back – but he’d been standing on the edge of the platform, somehow, and he steps back and falls into the darkness surrounding the station.

When he wakes up via a horse licking his face, he remembers nothing about the other boy.


	5. Arendelle + Kairi & Xion

Xion looks out over the snow and resists the urge to shiver.

“Are you sure this is the right place?” she asks the person standing next to her.

Kairi tucks a strand of hair behind her ear. “Yeah, I’m sure. I’ve been here before, with…” she trails off, sighing. Xion looks at her. Kairi’s expression is tired, but there’s a spark of hope burning in her eyes that she has had ever since Sora had brought her back to the islands, and disappeared in front of them all.

“Well then I think we might have landed in the wrong spot,” Xion says.

“I think so,” Kairi agrees. “This is the tall mountain, the area where Elsa made her castle. We need to travel to Arendelle. That’s where Elsa and Anna are.”

“Do you really think that they might have any ideas about where Sora went?” Xion asks. Kairi starts walking through the snow, leaving a path behind her that is much easier to walk in than the freshly packed drifts.

“They’re princesses of heart, just like me,” Kairi muses. “Even if they don’t know, they need to be told about their role in the wider worlds. They can’t fulfil their duties if they don’t know what’s going on. Asking about Sora is just… a part of those duties. He’s a Keyblade wielder. He’s important to the worlds.”

Xion looks at the back of Kairi’s head and wonders if that’s really true. She and Roxas hadn’t been important to the wider world – all they’d done was harm it by gathering hearts to be used by Xemnas. Sora is bright and lovely and fun, but he’s still just another person. Xion doesn’t know how important he really is, outside their circle.

She’d only had the chance to meet him a few times, but she’s been hidden inside his heart for long enough to know that he’s a good person. If they can find a way to bring him back, then she wants to do that. It’s important to her, but it’s important to Kairi and Riku on another level. The two of them burn through missions to other worlds, searching, always searching, for answers or clues or hints.

“They should know about the princesses of heart,” Xion agrees out loud, but does not comment on the state of Sora’s existence. She knows that Kairi marks her words, but what else can she do? She isn’t cruel; she won’t say to Kairi’s face that Sora’s fate probably doesn’t matter to the wider world.

Kairi looks over her shoulder. The determination in her eyes still hasn’t faded. “We will find Sora,” she says, as if she can read the thoughts that are going through Xion’s mind. “We will. I know we will.”

Xion can only nod. Maybe, in the face of Kairi’s burning resolve, she really will find a way to bring Sora back. If there’s even a shred of possibility, Xion wants to help her achieve her goal.

“I’ll do everything I can to help you,” Xion promises.

Kairi smiles at last. It’s a rare enough sight these days. “Thank you, Xion,” she says gratefully. “Now, let’s keep going!”

She powers on, leaving Xion foundering in the snow even though she’s walking in Kairi’s tracks. She shakes her head and hurries after her. Kairi is a pillar of strength, and she doesn’t fight the urge to be pulled into her light. Xion knows now that together, they can do amazing things. Maybe even this.


	6. Toy Box + Sora & Donald & Goofy

Sora leans back into his chair on the gummi ship, resisting the urge to sigh. They’re still on world waiting for the fuel tanks to fill, but Sora can’t help but keep thinking about what the young Xehanort had said. The last time he hadn’t really thought about his cryptic warnings had resulted in him being pulled into the depths of sleep and needed Riku to come and rescue him. Riku isn’t here now – he’s on his own mission, far away, but Sora wishes that he were standing by his side. Riku has always been able to see what people are really saying and what they really mean. If there was anything to be worried about, Riku would have pinned it down and talked it out with Sora, and then the two of them could confront it together.

“What are you thinking about Sora? You’re smiling,” Donald quacks at him.

Sora coughs a little bit. “Oh, you know. Just thinking that Riku would have liked to see that world.”

“Toy Box really was interesting, wasn’t it,” Goofy says, putting his hand under his chin thoughtfully. “Seeing new worlds really is something, right fellas?”

“Sure is!” Sora says, perking up. He really does like going around and seeing new things and meeting new people. “I just wish Xehanort would stop butting his head into everything.”

“Hmm. He’s probably keeping an eye on us,” Goofy says.

“We just need to keep a step ahead of him,” Donald huffs.

Sora bites his lip. “That’s the thing… I don’t think that we are.”

Behind him, Donald and Goofy exchange a glance.

“Is this about what he said to you?”

Sora nods. “It just reminds me of what happened in the Realm of Sleep, and the last time I ignored something he said.”

“Naw, you can’t take everything he says at face value,” Goofy says. “He’s trying to get under your skin.”

“Guys like him only want to unbalance you,” Donald adds.

“I know, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t working,” Sora explains. “I don’t like it. I just wish I was stronger. Then I’d feel more confident about all of this.”

“You can’t rush things,” Donald says. “Remember what Herc said? Just let things come to you naturally. You’ve done this before – we’ve seen you become super strong! We believe in you.”

“Yep,” Goofy says cheerfully. “We know that you can do it, Sora. We’ve got faith in you.”

Sora lets out a breath. “Thanks, guys. You’re right – we just need to keep exploring worlds, and we’ll find out what Xehanort was talking about and we’ll get strong enough to stop whatever he’s planning. I know it!”

He grins back at the other two, who smile at him. Right on cue, the gummi ship fires up underneath them, engine running smoothly. Sora laughs, and Donald and Goofy join him.

“Alright! On to the next adventure!” Sora says cheerfully. And while most of his doubts have been solved for now, he still has a worming feeling of unease in his heart; but that can only be fixed with time, surely. What matters now is moving forward.


	7. San Fransokyo + Roxas & Sora

“And when you’re not strong enough, he’ll be there to make up the difference.”

Sora says the words with a strength that surprises him. Sure, he’s talking about Tadashi and how Hiro can always count on his memory to strengthen him in any scenario. But they can apply to him as well, and the situation he finds himself stuck in.

An ice cream in his hands, sitting and eating in a high place with friends. It brings a hollow ache to his chest, the knowledge that he’s missing out, and that what he had was false, never quite real in any way that mattered. Made up just to keep him complacent, keep him small and confused and not understanding, while they reprogrammed him, pulled his memories apart and put them back into Sora where they belonged.

 _No,_ Sora wants to think. He had no part in what happened to Roxas, but after meeting with him and having Roxas give him all his memories in the sleeping realm, thoughts and feelings that aren’t quite his appear when he brushes up against situations that Roxas is familiar with. He supposes it isn’t too strange – after all, when he’s on a beach he thinks about the Destiny Islands. He doesn’t think that’s strange – just that he wasn’t there when many of these new memories were created. He doesn’t mind having them, except for how they sit a little _too_ comfortably inside his heart. It’s like they were always meant to be there, always meant to be tucked alongside his feelings of love for his friends and the excitement of meeting new people and seeing new worlds. Like they’re a part of him, instead of put there by another. Roxas _is_ different to him, he knows it.

 _We’re not the same,_ Sora had said. Roxas had just given him a strange, small smile, and gifted him his pain, his memories, his emotions. Sora still doesn’t know if that was an effort to prove him wrong or prove him right. What he does know is that Roxas doesn’t belong in his heart. Roxas deserves to sit out here beside Sora, eating his own ice cream, with his own friends. The way things are right now – well, it’s just wrong. It needs to be changed.

“Sora? You okay?”

Sora startles out of his thoughts and smiles at Hiro, who has an eyebrow raised in slight concern. “Yeah, I’m fine,” Sora reassures him. And as soon as he finds a way to rescue Roxas, he’s going to be more than fine – he’s going to be great, because then he’ll be able to rest easy, knowing that he isn’t at fault for someone’s continued imprisonment.

Sora lifts his head to the sunset and promises himself, yet again, that he’s going to do all he can to help his friends. That’s who he is.


	8. Port Royal + Sora/Kairi

Sora hops down onto the wood of the quay, a big grin spread across his face. The beach, the sun, the _ocean_ – all of it is something so familiar to him. While he’d never had cause to dress up in such an interesting outfit back on the Islands, being on an island is great for his ruffled nerves.

Someone steps down behind him and Sora turns around to hold out his hand for Kairi to grab.

“This world is great, isn’t it!” Sora cheers. It’s just the two of them – Donald and Goofy are back at the Mysterious Tower, going over some stuff with Yen Sid. While everyone was waiting for Mickey and Riku to get back, or send a message saying that they needed help, there wasn’t much that needed doing. So Sora had decided that now was a great opportunity to take Kairi sightseeing.

“A beach town?” Kairi asks, interested. “It looks different from home.”

She’s wearing her own pirate gear that Donald had magicked up for her before they’d left. She hasn’t taken his hand, too busy staring around in wonder, so Sora grabs her hand and pulls her towards the town.

“Yeah, it is. The people are all used to pirates here! That’s why we needed the different clothes. Wearing this, we’ll blend right in.”

“Makes sense,” Kairi muses. “No one really dresses like we do on the islands. Even Leon, Yuffie and the others… aren’t wearing something that you would see around home.” She lifts her spare hand in an attempt to muffle her giggle.

“That’s true,” Sora says. “So what do you want to do first? Meet some of my friends? Take a trip on my pirate ship? Go hunting for crabs? Go swimming? Build a sandcastle?”

“I want to see your apparently super cool and super giant pirate ship,” Kairi teases. “How did you manage to get your own ship?”

“Well,” Sora says, scratching his head. “I kind of needed one to save this world, so this sea goddess gave it to me?”

Kairi stares at him. “Sea goddess?”

“Yep,” Sora says. “So you want to check it out? We can definitely do that, it’s just on the other side of town. And it _is_ super cool and really big, you’ll see.”

Sora tugs her forward by her hand, and leads her forward. The people in town either ignore him or wave to him, depending on if he’s talked to them or not, and Kairi’s eyes go wide when he leads her up the dock towards the Leviathan.

“ _That’s_ your ship?” she asks.

“Totally is,” Sora says, enjoying how shocked and impressed she looks. It takes a lot to impress Kairi, but if something is going to do it then the Leviathan is probably going to qualify. “She’s impressive, isn’t she?”

“You can say that again,” Kairi says. She runs up the gangplank and Sora follows, eyes on her the entire time. It feels like forever since they’ve just been able to hang out like this.

Kairi is already at the helm, and Sora places on hand on top of hers on the wheel.

“This is pretty cool,” Kairi says, casting a smirk back at him. Sora puts his free hand on her hip and nuzzles at the skin under her ear, right where he knows she’s ticklish. “Sora!” Kairi giggles.

“Usually the Captain is the only one who gets to steer the ship… but I suppose I can make an exception this one time,” Sora says.

“Just one time?” Kairi asks, eyebrow raised.

“Okay, whenever you want,” Sora says, folding like wet paper.

Kairi grins victoriously at him, and Sora feels his heart leap at the sparkle in her eyes. The wind moves her hair and Sora can only think about how beautiful she is.

“Onwards!” Kairi says, pointing forward.

The ship doesn’t move. “Er, we have to cast off first,” Sora tells her. Kairi pouts at him and he reluctantly pries himself away from her. “Which I’ll do right now!”

“Sounds like a plan,” Kairi says cheerfully, putting both her hands on the wheel with a determined expression on her face.

Sora jumps down towards the ropes, grinning like an absolute idiot.


	9. Keyblade Graveyard + Kairi/Riku

Kairi resists the urge to hum under her breath as the gummi ship hurtles through space. She’s been on gummi ships before, obviously – but it’s still a bit unnerving, to think that only some strange sort of space material is the only thing separating them all from the void in between the worlds. King Mickey has told her before that it’s possible to survive in that void for a short time – and that indeed, she probably already has, since Radiant Garden fell. She would have been cast out to the in-between, but the magic spell on her necklace would have saved her, taken her to the Destiny Islands where she met Sora and Riku. She tries not think about the other people who must have been cast out alongside her, and who hadn’t met Aqua when they were a child.

Humming is just something she does to comfort herself. It’s a way to keep her idle thoughts busy, and it’s rarely distracting. Riku and Sora are used to it by now, but there are other people in the gummi ship who might not take her humming the right way. Opposite her, Aqua and Ven are sitting next to each other, discussing plans in low voices. She could probably listen in on them if she really wanted to, but there’s no reason to, really. If it’s relevant, the two of them will share with everyone else. And if it’s not, then she doesn’t want to intrude on their private conversation. Aqua hasn’t seen Ven in over ten years – they’re entitled to a little time to talk and catch up on what each other have been doing. Especially when they’ve got such an enormous task laid out before them.

At the end of the seating area, Lea has his head thrown back against the wall. She has no idea how he can nap in a place like this, especially as the gummi ship shudders as they experience some space turbulence. After spending so much time together she feels like she knows him fairly well, but that’s just ridiculous.

The hatch opens, and Kairi turns to see Riku coming down from the cockpit.

“All’s fine upstairs,” he tells them all. “But too many cooks spoil the pot, so I’m just a passenger now.”

Aqua and Ven nod. Lea continues to snore gently.

Riku sits down next to her, closer than he strictly needs to be. Kairi doesn’t hesitate in curling up around him, laying her head on his shoulder. Riku wraps his arm around her, and she buries her head against his neck, and tries to let that reassure her. Riku is strong, and she’s strong, and they’re all strong – this will be a tough fight, but they should be able to win. She can’t let herself think of any other option.

“Hey,” Riku murmurs into her hair, placing a kiss there. “Getting airsick?”

“Hardly,” Kairi replies. But she doesn’t move from where she’s clinging to him. Riku’s arm squeezes her gently, reminding her of their nights spent together, Riku’s comforting presence lulling her to sleep. She doesn’t think anything could make her sleep now – she’s too strung out. She has no idea how Lea is managing it.

“We’ll be fine,” Riku tells her.

“I know,” Kairi says, and tries to sound like she believes it.

Riku’s gentle sigh isn’t convincing her that she’s doing a good job. “It’ll be hard,” he admits. “But we’ve faced down tougher. And that was with less than we have now – Aqua is a Master, and Ven seems handy with his Keyblade. And Lea can probably be used to block most attacks, what with how ridiculously tall he is.”

Kairi giggles a little at that. The height difference between her and Lea _is_ slightly silly.

“Mickey, Donald and Goofy are old hands, Sora and I have been doing this for years now, and you’re no pushover either. As long as we stick together, I don’t think anything will be able to stop us.”

Kairi takes a breath. Riku is right – Master Aqua is amazingly talented and skilled, and Ven _is_ really good. She’d sparred against him for a while and been impressed with how fast he is. And Sora and Riku are amazing. She’s been training too. While she might not be able to match them just yet, Riku is right. She isn’t a pushover. They can do this. _She_ can do this.

“Thanks, Riku,” she says, smiling at him. She feels like a weight’s been taken off her chest. She leans up and kisses him lightly, tasting the tang of his lip balm. At least he’s still taking care of himself, at the end of the world.

“No problem,” Riku mumbles, a light dusting of pink over his cheeks. Kairi thinks he’s _adorable._ She follows his gaze to find Ven and Aqua looking at them. The two look away when it’s clear that they’ve been caught staring, and Aqua clears her throat awkwardly.

“You get used to it if you spend enough time around them,” Lea says into the silence. “Sappy, really.”

“Oh shut up,” Kairi says, grinning while she kicks out at him. Lea flops an arm about dramatically, as if she’d actually hurt him.

“You know I’m right!”

“Maybe,” Kairi allows. She settles back into Riku’s grasp, feeling far better than she did ten minutes ago. There’s a reason there’s _seven_ lights. She’s not alone, and it was silly of her to forget about that. There’s strength in a team, as Sora has shown, again and again.

“What would I do without you?” she murmurs, loud enough so only Riku can hear her. His eyes shine in the low light, catching strangely and dancing. She’s noticed that his eyes have changed, ever since he came back from the land of sleep. She wonders if he knows about it, or if she’s the only one who looks that deeply.

“You’d be fine,” Riku tries to deflect, his blush not dissipating.

“No I wouldn’t,” Kairi says, putting a hand on the back of his neck so she can kiss him again. Riku leans down into her willingly, as they speed through space, towards their goal.


End file.
